Public radio stations in Colorado prepare to lose millions of dollars in federal funding
The nonprofit funds NPR, PBS and 1,500 radio and television stations across the country.
Colorado Public Radio says it would lose $1.4 million -- about 5% of its funding. It says there are a dozen small public radio stations in mountain and rural communities that could go off the air due to the cuts. Those stations not only provide local news and programming, but emergency alerts in cases of major storms, flooding and wildfires.
"If you're a hiker, if you're an outdoorsman, if you're a hunter, if you're a skier, or if you just live in a rural community and you rely on this infrastructure to keep yourself safe, all of this is at risk now," said Colorado Democrat Jason Crow, who opposed the bill.
Ashley Krest, the general Manager at KVNF in Paonia, says her station has 10,000 listeners across 10,000 square miles on the Western Slope. She says some of them live in areas where there is no internet service.
The radio station, she says, is a lifeline in emergencies like the South Rim Fire
"So for them to be able to know that our at 90.9 or 89.1 is one that is going to deliver those special beeps that always come out and say, 'OK, we're now going to be evacuating off the south rim of the Black Canyon. These are the specific roads, and those are the folks that need to be paying attention and act now. Pack you go bag,'" Krest said. "I think that there's certain amount of trust that we've garnered from our listeners. We've been around for 46 years."
Krest says KVNF receives 20% of its funding from the CPB.
Gerald Rodriguez, general manager of KRZA in Alamosa, says his station receives nearly half of its funding from the organization. KRZA covers the entire San Luis Valley and Northern New Mexico. Rodriguez says the station not only provides emergency alerts for its own listeners but for two other radio stations.
Rodriguez says he maintains the transmitter -- located on San Antonio Mountain -- himself to save money.
"The terrain up there is pretty rough, especially in the winter time," Rodriguez said. "You can't get up there with an SUV, a snowmobile, anything. So I've had to literally hike up there three, four hours with a backpack in the cold snow in snowshoes to get up to the mountain and then fix our transmitter."
Rodriguez and Krest say they will look for grants and fundraise, but cuts are likely.
In addition to public broadcasting, the bill also cuts about $8 billion in foreign aid.
All of Colorado's Republican members of U.S. Congress voted for the measure.
"If NPR and PBS are as popular and important as they claim they are, they'll be able to run just fine without being subsidized by the federal government," Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert said in a statement shared with CBS Colorado. "This package is a good first step towards balancing our budget and cutting the wasteful spending from USAID that President Trump and I victoriously campaigned on eliminating."
The bill passed the House and Senate, but the Senate made changes to it, including preserving funding for tribal radio stations, so the House will need to repass it.
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Fast Company
an hour ago
- Fast Company
How Trump's China tariffs are threatening your glitter nail polish
The ink was barely dry on President Donald Trump's April tariff missive, when owners of independent nail polish brands sounded the alarm that the changes could chip away at their businesses. That shocking executive order ushered in sweeping tariffs of as much as 145% on Chinese imports. Much has changed since then. In May, the U.S. struck a trade deal with China that included a 90-day truce and reducing tariffs to a still-high 30% for most imported goods; then, in June, President Trump said a trade deal with China is 'done' and tariffs on goods imported from China will total 55%, while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the level won't increase again. There's currently a pause on tariffs of goods imported from China, effective until August. But the prolonged chaos of the past few months has dragged small beauty brands into the middle of a big trade war. And it's created uncertainty that could leave a long-lasting smudge on business. Even the latest news doesn't provide much reassurance, says Rachel Wraith, founder and owner of Rogue Lacquer, a Phoenix-based indie line of nail polishes. 'It still feels like a slap in the face and I never feel certain with any 'set' decisions because everything seems to change, regardless' she tells Fast Company. Waking up each morning lately, Wraith says, has meant bracing herself for what news might come that day that will affect her livelihood. Hurdling one obstacle, she adds, makes her question what the next one will be. 'The uncertainty is very hard and very stressful.' Going rogue For more than a decade, Wraith has been making customized nail polishes and she launched Rogue Lacquer in 2018. The business is a primary source of income for Wraith and her husband; he works full-time for the business, while she also has a full-time job in healthcare. The powdered pigments that Rogue imports from China are a crucial component for Wraith to create the customized nail polish colors that she sells in small batches. And there aren't really alternative locations to source these pigments, which meant news of tariff increases left Wraith with little option but to pay up. This is a broader problem for the beauty industry as a lot of manufacturing is concentrated in China, adds Sucharita Kodali, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. 'The issue right now is there is no definitive place that is an alternative to China because you don't know what that situation is going to be in three months or six months,' Kodali says. 'Until the dust settles, no one knows.' Advantages for big brands Even as tariff increases rocked indie beauty brands, the impact was less severe on the industry's biggest players. Thanks to margins of about 80% to 90% on many beauty products, some companies are able to absorb higher tariffs without making price increases, Kodali says. But the longer-lasting impact tariffs will have on the beauty industry remains to be seen, notes William Curtis, senior industry and risk analyst at IBISWorld. 'In the short-term, the big winners will be the companies with a more diversified, more domestic manufacturing base.' Curtis points to L'Oréal, which has been actively diversifying where it produces its broad array of beauty products in recent years. Two-thirds of the L'Oréal products sold in the U.S. are now produced in the U.S., according to company figures. Of course, moving production elsewhere isn't an option for small beauty brands. Business owners could have taken a lesson from Trump's handling of tariffs during his first administration, Kodali says, and their options now are rather limited, which means some will face irreparable harm. Adds Wraith: 'Did anybody think to ask a small business how these decisions would affect them?' Pushback on pricing After Trump's announcement of tariff increases in early April, many brands—including Rogue, Lurid Lacquer, Atomic Polish, and Dam Nail Polish —posted candidly on social media that their businesses would be directly impacted, even if they weren't quite sure then by how much. Comments from customers were overwhelmingly positive, with people empathizing about the stress the uncertainty was causing. Some of that sentiment has since changed as brands have begun testing just how much they can increase prices without their polishes losing luster in the eyes of consumers. Mooncat, an indie brand of nail lacquers, announced it would increase the price of its polishes by $1 to $2 each while also upping the free shipping threshold. Most bottles of Mooncat lacquer now retail for $16 to $18—an amount some customers will happily pay, but a bridge too far for others. 'I cannot ever imagine paying almost $30 (including shipping and tax) for one bottle of polish,' one person posted on a thread discussing the price changes on the RedditLaqueristas subreddit. Other customers have complained in comments on Instagram that, amid the price increases, there's no longer transparency about how much money is going to benefit cats in need of new homes, the brand's charitable mission. Mooncat declined a request for an interview for this story. Brands embrace transparency ILNP and Cirque Colors have also recently announced price adjustments, with both brands opting for selective, rather than across-the-line, increases. Most bottles of ILNP polish now retail for $12.50 each, while many of Cirque's polishes start at that same price but also go up to as much as $16.50. The reception to these price changes has generally been more positive among the 940,000-plus members of the RedditLaqueristas community. Some people commended ILNP's transparency and others noted that Cirque's hasn't raised prices in several years. For beauty brands already struggling, tariffs have introduced a 'wild card' that could make their future more uncertain, says Curtis. In May, the owner of Dimension Nails announced she was shutting down her store effective June 30, though she didn't specifically cite tariffs as a reason. The owner of Triple O Polish announced in mid-April that she wouldn't be able to keep her business open if the highest-planned tariffs went into effect, though she's still operational amid the tariff pause. What works best While the community of indie nail polish brands is niche and very friendly—a group where Wraith might seek out guidance or compare notes—she's intentionally not monitoring what other brands are doing in the wake of tariff announcements. 'I don't want to make a decision based on somebody else's business model,' she says. 'You just have to figure out what works best for your business.' The risk of mirroring price increases taken by other brands, Wraith says, is that doing so could lead to a drop-off in sales in a year that's already proven to be a bit weaker. That appears to be a broader trend, as L'Oréal reported that U.S. sales of beauty products were ' more challenging than anticipated ' in the first quarter. For now, the biggest change Wraith has made—which she announced in April—has been to increase the threshold on orders eligible for free shipping, from $75 to $100. For those polishes made with high-end pigments, Wraith has bumped up prices by 50 cents, but she's resisted across-the-line price adjustments and most bottles of polish retail for $12 or $13. Navigating a new normal Prior to the initial tariff announcements, Wraith says she was fortunate to have a lot of pigments on-hand, and she's since limited imports to only those supplies she really needs. She has paid tariffs twice since April, including when they were at the highest level, and in this period of flux, she's opted not to branch out so much with the range of products she's creating. By keeping costs more consistent, Wraith is optimistic that Rogue can ride out this period of uncertainty. But it's hard to make decisions, she says, when there's the very real possibility that she could place an order one day, and tariffs could change the next. This is characteristic of the 'chaotic' rollout of tariff increases that's created a lot of confusion for small businesses, as Kodali notes. 'My hope is that in six months, all of these business owners will be in a better place.' Even if nail polish is a 'luxury item,' creating lacquers—first as a hobby, now as a business—has brought Wraith a lot of joy over the years because she enjoys making other people happy. 'And people need that more than ever right now.'
Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Colbert's most partisan moments as 'Late Show' host, from leading Biden fundraiser to dancing with Schumer
Reaction to the cancellation of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" unsurprisingly fell on partisan lines. To sum up, President Donald Trump was gleeful on Truth Social, while prominent Democrats and liberal journalists and celebrities mourned the news and fumed at CBS for axing the progressive favorite. Under Colbert since he took over in 2015, "The Late Show" became one of late-night's most reliably partisan programs, with Democrats frequently booked for friendly interviews, abundant anti-Trump and anti-Republican jokes in his monologues, and the host himself even helping at a glitzy fundraiser for then-President Joe Biden last year. Here are some of Colbert's most partisan moments at the helm of "The Late Show." In summer 2020, Colbert, broadcasting remotely in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, gushed that he had no jokes after playing clips of Michelle Obama's Democratic National Convention speech urging America to elect Joe Biden. "My job is to have a joke for every time somebody says anything in public," he said, smiling. "After watching Michelle Obama's speech, I have never been more happy to fail at my job." That night, he also said, "For four years, we've looked on in horror as Donald Trump tore down every norm in American life. Well, tonight, the Democrats began what Joe Biden has called a battle for the soul of this nation." Colbert's admiration for the Obamas was never a secret. At another point in 2017, after playing a clip of the former president just months into the first Trump term, he cooed, "I miss you," to huge cheers from the audience. A video of the late-night host dancing with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at a concert in August 2021 made waves on social media. Schumer and Colbert were widely criticized on X — then Twitter — for releasing the video in the midst of the Biden administration's chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The video was posted just days after the Taliban seized the capital of Kabul and forced the U.S. Embassy there to evacuate, with American citizens left stranded in the country. "Life is good for our blue elite while 1000s [sic] of Americans are stranded behind enemy lines," one user wrote. "Does anyone else throw up a little in their mouth watching this??" another person asked. "The majority leader when Americans are trapped in Afghanistan," another post read. Colbert was one of several late-night hosts who enthusiastically celebrated former President Joe Biden's 2020 victory. An overjoyed Colbert opened his first show after the race was officially called by pouring champagne to toast Biden's win with his wife. He happily declared, "Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Biden did it! He's our next president!" before dancing. "I'm so happy!" He added that he cried with relief and suggested Trump's political career was finished. His reaction was quite the opposite after the 2016 and 2024 elections, which he treated like America's funeral. When it became clear that Trump was on the way to victory on the night of the 2016 election, Colbert appeared stunned. "Wow. That's a horrifying prospect. I can't put a happy face on that, and that's my job," he admitted during a live election special that aired on Showtime. "How did our politics get so poisonous? Maybe we overdosed. We drank too much of the poison." After the 2024 election, Colbert said he had begun to lose his faith in humanity. "It's really hard to see a bright side here," he conceded. In March 2024, Colbert helped boost Biden's re-election campaign – which Biden later abandoned – with a star-studded fundraiser in New York City. At the glitzy event, he moderated a conversation between Democratic Presidents Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. The record-setting fundraiser brought in $26 million for Biden's presidential campaign. The event was a who's who of liberal elites, with Lizzo, Cynthia Erivo, Queen Latifah and other celebrities also in attendance. But Colbert was at the center of its marquee event. Organizers charged a minimum of $250 to attend and up to $500,000 for a more intimate, exclusive reception. For $100,000, guests got a photo with all three presidents taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. A fawning feature in Vogue praised Colbert for leading "a compelling conversation between Biden, Obama, and Clinton with tact, grace, and a lot of laughter." "Colbert kicked things off with a series of delightfully mordant questions, among them: 'All three of you have been on Air Force One… that's made by Boeing, right?' 'Do any of you have plans to sell golden sneakers?' and 'Is it nice to live in the White House, or do you always feel like you're in a museum?,'" Vogue's article gushed. The evening ended with Colbert, Obama and Clinton putting on aviator sunglasses in tribute to Biden as the audience cheered and took pictures. While not abjectly partisan, Colbert aired a number of odd skits during the pandemic where animated needles did covers of various songs urging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Even some vaccine proponents found the presentation off-putting. In a widely panned live bit after the show returned to a studio audience, Colbert did a dance routine with a quartet of people dressed as vaccines to the song "Tequila." Although "vaccine" contains only two syllables, Colbert and his dancers sang, "Vaccine!" in place of the song's title, while the liberal crowd awkwardly watched and half-heartedly cheered. In another COVID-related moment in 2021, Colbert found himself in the strange position of clashing with friend and former Comedy Central colleague Jon Stewart over the lab-leak theory. Stewart memorably appeared on the show and espoused the lab-leak theory to a visibly troubled Colbert. He suggested it wasn't far-fetched to believe that the coronavirus pandemic originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab, comparing it to a chocolate outbreak near Hershey, Pennsylvania. "Oh my God, there's a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China, what do we do?" Stewart joked. "Oh, you know who we could ask, the Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab. The disease is the same name as the lab! That's just a little too weird, don't you think?" "'Oh my God, there's been an outbreak of chocolaty goodness near Hershey, Penn. What do you think happened?' I don't know, maybe a steam shovel mated with a cocoa bean," he said. "Or it's the f---ing chocolate factory! Maybe that's it!" Colbert, a reliable sycophant for Democrats and liberal talking points, jokingly suggested Stewart was working for Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., with his comments.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Trump's Ambitions Collide With Epstein, Fed and Health Concerns
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